Monday, January 29, 2007

BA cabin crew strike

Out of the airline's 14,000 cabin crew, about 11,000 are members of the T&G - 96% of whom voted for strike action. I'm not sure if the rest are either members of another trade union or whether they are not in any but 11,000 out of 14,000 is not bad . 96% voting for a strike seems pretty good as well.So how come the left blogs are not talking about this? Trolley dollies on picket lines , what's the problem.They may not fit neatly into a left campaign, such as the City Cleaners but their rights as workers are still under attack.

Tony Woodley is downplaying their militancy and playing up their 'professionalism' :

"Let us be very clear that in cabin crew these are not industrial militants. They are a sizable group of professional and responsible women and men who have lost trust in their company's management and that is abundantly evident from that ballot result."

They may not be traditional militants but they have voted overwhelmingly for a strike and a large majority are in a union. From cabin crew I have spoken to in the past its not that well paid and is not 'glamorous'.

Staff are being offered up to £200 a day in transport expenses in an attempt to lure them across picket lines mounted by the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&G).Management has told the airline's stewards and stewardesses that they can ignore regulations stipulating that they turn up for duty in BA uniform to prevent them being targeted by strikers.The company is also setting up park-and-ride shuttle bus services based at locations away from the airport and establishing a 24-hour phone line to offer "advice and support" to those who want to work during the strike.